Wednesday, December 08, 2004

Specialists in Britain, the United States and France had helped to establish that it was a biological agent, a chemical agent or, most likely, a rare poison that struck him down in the run-up to the presidential election, he said. Doctors needed to examine Mr Yushchenko again at the clinic in Vienna to confirm their diagnosis but were in no doubt that the substance was administered deliberately, he said.

“This is no longer a question for discussion,” Dr Korpan said. “We are now sure that we can confirm which substance caused this illness. He received this substance from other people who had a specific aim.”

...A parliamentary investigation found no evidence of poisoning.

But Dr Korpan said that toxicologists and other experts at laboratories in Britain, the US and France had since examined Mr Yushchenko’s blood samples and medical records. “We will reveal the results in the near future and confirm the cause of this mysterious illness,” he said. “We need to check him again here in Vienna. If we received him today, we could finish the whole investigation in two or three days.”